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Friday, August 29, 2008

Disgustingus Maximus

I’m sure most new parents expect they will have their share of gross moments. In our first 8.5 months, we’ve been pretty lucky. River has peed outside of a diaper only a handful of times and neither of us have been pooped on. There were several geyser-like spit ups, sudden fountains of white goo, but it’s been so long since that has happened regularly that I can almost forget what it was like to have my clothing wet with the thick liquid.

This morning we had our grossest experience ever and I was really lucky to get out of it. Usually I take care of River in the mornings, when he first gets up, and Mark takes him in the evening. This morning I was exhausted and didn’t feel well. I got up to pump at 6, then went back to bed. When I heard River around eight I asked Mark if he could get him and change his diaper before I fed him.

He wanted to put it off, asking whether there were toys in the crib for him to play with (no), saying we should give him some time.

“He probably has a poop in his pants,” I said, since I’d been seeing one lately first thing in the morning. “He needs someone to help him out.”

Mark finally went to get him and returned appalled.

“His diaper came off and there is poop everywhere,” he said. “This is going to take a while, including a bath.”

One half hour later he brought River to me for his feeding. He told me River was covered in feces from head to toe. It was on his shirt, on his face and his hands. It stained the crib, got on the bumper and clumped on the crib rails.

“I didn’t want you to see it or you might not have wanted to breastfeed him,” he said.

When I asked him if he thought River ate any of it, I crossed my fingers he’d say no.

“Yes, he probably did,” he said. His shirt was stained with it and he was sucking on his shirt.

That is so disgusting, yet I can’t do anything about it. If he ate his poop, there isn’t anything I can do now but to love him like always. Still, I wish there was something I could do to go back and change the circumstances.

It’s not clear whether the Velcro unfastened on the diaper or whether River pulled it off. Mark thinks River definitely played a role because he said the diaper was completely removed. During the summer, we’ve been putting him down just in a diaper. We’ll now be putting on pajamas or a sleepsack to make it harder to reach the diapers. If removing his diaper continues to be a problem, we might have to switch from the BumGeniuses, which have served us so well, to diapers that use snaps (Motherease or Fuzzi Bunz) to make removal a little more difficult.

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About Me

I'm an explorer, questioner, traveler, reader, thinker and citizen. I'm also a mother, to a three-year old and a baby. I am raising my children bilingual English/Spanish and will soon incorporate Chinese for the preschooler. As I learn about the journey of parenthood, I try to look beyond my culture and area and search for ideas from a wide range of places and people. I enjoying discussing topics that affect the wellbeing of parents, children and families.